Erik Weihenmayer climbed Mt. Everest in 2001 – a feat in and of itself and one that takes your breath away when you realize he is blind. Weihenmayer made the cover of Time Magazine that year.

But the 44-year-old adventurer and athlete is now training for another mind-boggling feat: paddling a kayak down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon and some of the gnarliest whitewater in the country.

“This is 10 times scarier than the scariest thing I’ve ever done, and I’ve done some pretty scary things.”, he said in a recent New York Times story.